Top 25 Albums of the 2000s

After reading Pitchfork’s Pitchfork’s top albums and songs lists, I was inspired to come up with my top albums list.*  If you have a couple spare hours, click through the songs list for awhile and listen to some of the embedded songs.  Maybe you missed something; a decade is a long time.

*I can’t imagine coming up with a top X songs list.  Comparing albums is difficult but at least you can come up with some basic metrics (album depth, how much you want to listen through a whole album at once, etc.), but for songs I got nothing.  Is “Destroy Everything You Touch” better than “Mein Herz Brennt”?  I have no idea!

Sure, my list isn’t as authoritative and I haven’t heard every culturally relevant album of the decade.  A year from now my ordering could be completely different or I might have entirely new entries from albums that I just haven’t heard yet.

My first attempt started with a goal of my top 25 albums, but this ballooned up to 30 albums that I found I just had to include on a decade-long list.  Then 35, then 50.  But for me, there really wasn’t a huge difference between, say, the #32 album (Röyksopp – Melody AM) and the #49 album (Space Manoeuvres – Oid).  So we’re down to 25 albums for the purpose of brevity.

Note that I ruled compilations ineligible for this, which disqualifies albums like Nick Warren’s Reykjavik mix (almost certainly a top 25 entry).  Ok, well, technically Nah Und Fern is a compilation, but I’m using it as a stand-in for the four albums that comprise it.  The albums are so interconnected in theme and aesthetic, I don’t think I could choose a distinct favorite.

1. Radiohead – Kid A (2000)
2. The National – Boxer (2007)
3. Aphex Twin – Drukqs (2001)
4. Radiohead – Hail to the Thief (2003)
5. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (2007)
6. The Smashing Pumpkins – Machina/The Machines of God (2000)
7. Editors - The Back Room (2005)
8. Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights (2002)
9. Asobi Seksu – Citrus (2006)
10. Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase (2005)
11. Thom Yorke - The Eraser (2006)
12. Mindless Self Indulgence – Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy (2000)
13. Ulrich Schnauss – Far Away Trains Passing By (2001)
14. Radiohead - In Rainbows (2007)
15. The Orb – Okie Dokie It’s The Orb on Kompakt (2005)
16. Beck - Guero (2005)
17. The Avalanches - Since I Left You (2000)
18. Ulrich Schnauss – A Strangely Isolated Place (2003)
19. Boards of Canada – Geogaddi (2002)
20. Faded Paper Figures – Dynamo (2008)
21. The Orb - Cydonia (2001)
22. Gas - Nah Und Fern (2008)
23. The Field - From Here We Go Sublime (2007)
24. The Knife - Silent Shout (2006)
25. Gorillaz - Demon Days (2005)

Just missing the cut (in no particular order): Electric Six – Fire, Manitoba – Up in Flames, DJ Shadow – The Private Press, Dan Deacon – Spiderman of the Rings, Passion Pit – Manners, Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere, Kid Koala – Some of My Best Friends Are DJs, The Shins – Wincing the Night Away, Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion, The (International) Noise Conspiracy – Survival Sickness

Most unknown from top 25: Faded Paper Figures – Dynamo

Most critically derided from top 25: The Orb – Cydonia

Barely missing the cutoff date: Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile (released at the end of 2009, this would have been a contender for #1)

Wanted to include in top 50 but could in no way justify it: The Bug - London Zoo, Nobukazu Takemura – Hoshi no Koe, Deepchord Present Echospace – The Coldest Season

Wouldn’t be surprised if they entered the top 25 in the future: The Dead Weather – Horehound, Asobi Seksu – Hush, Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

Decade winner: Thom Yorke

Coming up with this list was a little strange, as it mixed albums like Machina that I was essentially raised on almost ten years ago with albums I didn’t discover until this year like Faded Paper Figures’ Dynamo.  I swear I could change this list around a dozen times be no less satisfied or dissatisfied with it.

Picking the #1 album was pretty difficult.  For a long time I had Boxer as the top entry.  Plus, I didn’t really want to pick Kid A, as it’s #1 on almost every top albums list I’ve read.  Kid A really is a great album, but I think I view it differently than a lot of people.  For many, they viewed it as an avante-garde step for rock and a musical revolution.  Coming from an electronic music background, I viewed it more as a natural progression of electronic and rock music.  Kid A takes a lot of cues from “IDM” artists like Aphex Twin, but Radiohead just did it so damn well.

Arbitrary song of the day: Nina Simone – Sinnerman (Felix Da Housecat’s Heavenly House Mix)

October 2009 Mix CD

1. The Bug – Warning
2. Glasnost – [Hidden track]
3. M.I.A.-  Paper Planes (Diplo Remix)
4. Fischerspooner – Emerge
5. The Knife – We Share Our Mother’s Health
6. Les Savy Fav – The Sweat Descends
7. Pixies – Where is My Mind?
8. Stellastarr* – My Coco
9. Tokyo Police Club – Juno
10. Sleater-Kinney – You’re No Rock N’ Roll Fun
11. The Strokes – Reptilia
12. Animal Collective – Fireworks
13. Faded Paper Figures – B Film
14. David Byrne & Brian Eno – Strange Overtones
15. Cut Copy – Hearts on Fire
16. M83 – Kim & Jessie
17. Sonic Youth – Shadow of a Doubt
18. The Shins – Those to Come
19. Passion Pit – Eyes as Candles

Arbitrary song of the day: Kanye West – Heartless

September 2009 Mix CD

Let’s try a slightly different format this month…

1. The Dead Weather – Treat Me Like Your Mother
2. The Strokes – Juicebox
3. Mindless Self Indulgence – Mark David Chapman
4. The Bug – Poison Dart (Stampin feat. Flowdan)
5. Beastie Boys – Alive
6. The Prodigy – Run With the Wolves
7. Muse – Supermassive Black Hole
8. Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses
   
9. Beck – Profanity Prayers
10. The Strokes – Red Light
11. Shout Out Louds – Impossible
12. Four Tet – Smile Around the Face
13. Beck – Sexx Laws
14. Peter Bjorn and John – Young Folks
15. The Knife – Heartbeats
16. Faded Paper Figures – The Persuaded
17. The Postal Service – Such Great Heights
    
18. Animal Collective – My Girls
19. Passion Pit – Little Secrets

I actually preferred to put The Dead Weather’s cover of “Forever My Queen”, but I think they’ve only performed that live, and I usually don’t put live tracks on mix discs.  How many super-groups can Jack White form during his musical career?  Is he like Johnny Appleseed but with rock groups instead of apple trees?

The Stampin feat. Flowdan version of “Poison Dart” is far superior to the original due mainly to Flowdan’s deep, growling vocals.  The lyrics for “Poison Dart” are equally incomprehensible to my lyrical-understanding sensibilities to “Skeng”, but they seem to have a little more depth.  Basically, “Poison Dart” seems to mention a wider variety of weapons and “military headgear, gloves, and a mask” than “Skeng”.  We follow that up with the best Jewish rappers from Brooklyn.  I like how they still rap about who they are and the fact that they are, indeed, rapping.  Very old skool hip hop.

I may have mentioned it before, but I don’t “get” Muse.  I’m not taking the “they ripped off early Radiohead” thing, no.  I just don’t understand their wide appeal.  I mean, they aren’t bad or anything.  They’re technically competent, they come up with decent melodies and such, but I still feel like I’m missing some key ingredient.

I have decided that I like The Strokes.  I’m a bit late to that party, but I’ll deal with it.

The Studio remix of Shout Out Louds’ “Impossible” is still better, but the original still has some fun hooks and interesting composition.  Surprisingly, the original clocks in at almost 7 minutes, longer than the danceable remix.  Not usually the way it works.  This fades into “Smile Around the Face”, which I think I like mostly because it sounds like Passion Pit.

I need to listen to more of The Knife.  They are special.  Another special band?  Faded Paper Figures.  I found them on Pandora and bought them on CDBaby.  This is the internet music scene in action.

I appreciate “Such Great Heights” more with every listen.  The interplay between all of the tinkly melodies is entrancing.  Similarly hypnotic are the arpeggios on “My Girls”.  The unrelenting chants, the sparse percussion, the perpetual build-up, the urgency in tone, and the patience in composition.  There’s a lot going on here, and I can see why it took Paul Shirley so many listens.

Arbitrary song of the day: Circulation – Turquoise (differentGear Mix)

August 2009 Mix CD

Garrett Jones has to start sucking at some point, right?  Players don’t suddenly become better moving from the minors to the majors.  Anyway…

1. Coal Chamber – Big Truck >> If I was still 9 years old, I, too, would write a song about a big truck.  There’s something you have to admire about a band who screams “big truck” and makes that a song.  I love it.
2. White Zombie – Creature of the Wheel >> One of the few non-singles from Astro Creep: 2000, but it very well could have been.  People forget just how good this album was, with over half of the album being singles.  There will be a metal post in the relatively near future discussing such matters.
3. The Presets – Down Down Down
4. The Rapture – House of Jealous Lovers >> Even though I know the title of the song, it still sounds like “Hot souls!  Chinese lovers!” to me.
5. Franz Ferdinand – No You Girls
6. Beck – Mixed Bizness >> Beck is the funk.  He wants to be it, and he is it.  No part of this song is not the funk.  This cannot be denied.
7. Muse – Starlight >> I’ve never been a Muse fan.  I don’t have anything against them.  I remember thoroughly enjoying (and still enjoying) “Muscle Museum” in 1999.  But, really, I only like this one for the nice keyboardy bits.  Does that make me a bad person?
8. Giant Drag – Kevin is Gay >> Actually found this one via Bill Simmons’ tweet.  Simple lyrics, simple melodies, gorgeous post-grunge sounds.  I wish there were more “meows” here, though.  Also, the first sounds in the song are apparently lead singer Annie Hardy imitating the “shoryuken” sound from Street Fighter.
9. Blonde Redhead – 23
10. Shout Out Louds – Impossible (Possible Version by Studio) >> Swedish indie pop transformed into Balearic house.  It works so incredibly well, you wouldn’t know it’s a remix.  Sunny and warm enough that it works even in the dead of winter.
11. Stereolab – Good is Me >> Not just an experiment in music, but in logic.  “I am good therefore good is me,” “He’s not me therefore he is not good.”  While not logically sound (maybe that’s the point?), it is hella hypnotic.  “Good is Me” plays out in a bizarre ABAC featuring twangy guitar sounds and Americana organ before shifting to a ’70s prog rock outro.  I will need to investigate further Stereolab material…
12. Mute Math – Typical >> I’m a sucker for big crunchy distortion and “Typical” delivers.
13. Interpol – Roland >> I’ve explained before why Turn on the Bright Lights is a great album and Interpol’s other albums are not, so I don’t think we need to do that again.
14. Joy Division – Dead Souls >> The first lyrics don’t appear until almost 2 minutes in.  Of all Joy Division songs, I can see this one being most ferociously performed live.  Joy Division was supposedly a lot more aggressive live and this would have been a great window.
15. Bloc Party – I Still Remember >> The main guitar riff is a brilliant post-punk revival take on new wave.
16. The Shins – Sea Legs >> One of the more distinctive Shins songs.  It could have only been off of Wincing the Night Away.
17. Beck – Sunday Sun
18. Nick Drake – Fly >> The interplay of all the plucked, strummed, and bowed strings is dreamy.  Drake as always brings otherwordly qualities to simple lyrics.
19. The Smashing Pumpkins – Zeitgeist >> I hadn’t really listened to this song ever.  It was just kind of “that acoustic track at the end of Zeitgeist.”  It really is a special acoustic work by Billy Corgan on par with anything from the Mellon Collie demos.

Arbitrary song of the day: Tears for Fears – Head Over Heels

June 2009 Mix CD

So it’s a little late, but I swear I wrote the tracklist and burned it in June…

1. Los Campesinos! – Death to Los Campesinos! >> Peppy boy/girl vocals with baroquely poppy bells and drums. Fun times.
2. Matt and Kim – Daylight >> Turned onto this track by a post on Keith Law’s blog.  The clicking drums, affected vocals, and growling synths are the perfect ingredients for lo-fi electropop hit.  See MGMT – Time to Pretend.
3. The Ting Tings – Shut Up and Let Me Go >> This song has slowly grown on me.  Whereas “Great DJ” happened for me almost immediately, it look me a few listens to warm up to the neo-disco guitars and synths.  The vocals definitely have that repetitive, chanty quality that I can hook into.
4. Asobi Seksu – Mizu Asobi >> Every time I listen to their album Citrus, I seem to find a new great song.  Hush is probably a bit too dream-pop, not enough shoegaze.
5. Ida Maria – I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked
6. Green Day – Know Your Enemy >> I’m not really a punk fan (perhaps that’s evident by including a Green Day track on this mix?  I don’t know).  Despite the oversaturation of their recent album, “Know Your Enemy” is quality pop-punk.  I even like the extremely simple guitar solo bit in the middle.
7. The Presets – My People >>   “My People” throbs, dominates, and devastates.  With that kind of energy though, it probably overstays its welcome at 4.5 minutes.  I definitely regret missing these guys live in March.
8. The Smashing Pumpkins – G.L.O.W. >> I probably regret putting this song on here already.  It’s not particularly remarkable and definitely not a lyrical masterpiece.  Also, what’s with the abbreviated song names, Billy?  Who are you, W.A.S.P.?
9. The Bug feat. Flowdan – Jah War (Loefah Mix) >> Ok, yeah, I have no idea what this is about, but Flowdan has a great voice and Loefah creates a grinding bassline that surpasses Kevin Martin’s original mix.
10. Gnarls Barkley – Surprise
11. Beastie Boys – Pass the Mic >> Why do rappers like to rap about their own names so much?  Anyway, the rhyming of “commercial” with “commercial” freaks me out every time.
12. Beck – Que Ondo Guero >> The car horn-like synths and scattered vocal clips make me think of an LA traffic jam.  Beck can really sound like anything, but I think a lot of it is due to which producer(s) he employs for a given album.  For example, Guero with the Dust Brothers or Modern Guilt with Danger Mouse.
13. Asobi Seksu – Strings
14. Ben Folds – Jesusland
15. Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal >> It’s still nowhere near as good as “Blue Ridge Mountains”.
16. Editors – When Anger Shows >> Just an epic song by Editors.  Most of their work stays in the 3.5-4.5 minute range, but this one is almost six minutes.  It’s almost like two separate songs, which works well due to Editors’ big melodies and repetitive lyrics.
17. Silversun Pickups – Lazy Eye >> I see a lot of comparisons to The Smashing Pumpkins with Silversun Pickups (I assume to Gish/Siamese Dream era work; specifically, “Lazy Eye” sounds most like “1979″ and “Drown”).  I’d also throw Pavement and The Breeders out there as comparables.
18. Papercuts – Future Primitive >> “Future Primitive” brings to mind a modern black and white Western film with its distant backup vocals, clompy rhythms, and OK Corral guitar.
19. Badly Drawn Boy – The Shining >> What a delicate and bold work.  Each instrument and note is vivid and necessary.  The warm brass shines and interplays with the strings and guitar beautifully.  I don’t think I could recommend this enough.
20. Passion Pit – Moth’s Wings >> It was entirely intentional, but the acoustic guitar of “The Shining” transitions into the synthetic plucking of “Moth’s Wings”.  Passion Pit is quickly becoming one of my favorite artists.

Arbitrary song of the day: Das Racist & Wallpaper. – Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper. Remix) – What an insane song, but the remix is slick and energetic.  You owe it to yourself to listen to it once.

May 2009 Mix CD

I missed the April mix disc due to my main PC being down with hard drive issues.  Thanks go to Western Digital for their useful customer service, even though it did take a month to get a good one in return (the first arrived DOA).  Anyway, let’s kick it in a manner befitting of an elderly school…

1. The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die >> Before reading Paul Shirley’s writeup on The Prodigy, I was unaware that The Prodigy even had a new album.  I wasn’t into their previous album, which was too much of that awkward electronic-rock crossover with too many guest stars, a type of an album which occurs more often than it should.  In short, The Prodigy is back with an evil, growling big beat that shows off what they’ve always done best.
2. Mindless Self Indulgence – Straight to Video
3. The Smashing Pumpkins – FOL >> I broke my rule of not including Pumpkins songs on mix albums, as the quality obviously isn’t as consistent as their 90s work and it’s not entirely certain that Billy Corgan will keep putting out full albums.  Also, he should probably drop “The Smashing Pumpkins” moniker now that it’s just him…
4. Phoenix – 1901 >> The track has a dance-punk vibe, despite minimal synthesizer intervention.  And isn’t this one of the most unexpected SNL music acts?
5. Bloc Party – One Month Off >> I guess this song occurs one month after Underworld’s “Two Months Off”?
6. Liars – It Fit When I Was a Kid (Crystal Castles Remix)
7. Hot Chip – Ready for the Floor >> I’ve listened to this song so many times now, but I still don’t know if I have anything interesting to say about.  Let’s try… it’s… a good… synthpop?  No, I guess I don’t.
8. The Ting Tings – Great DJ >> I’ve just been clicking through their singles on Youtube and so far this is the only one I like.  Am I doing it wrong?
9. Moloko – Fun for Me >> As I previously mentioned, I’m glad I learned of this song.
10. Andrew Bird – Imitosis >> Andrew Bird looks to be one of the more interesting musicians to see live – great multi-instrumentalist.
11. Editors – Open Up >> It seems like Editors’ B-sides are hit-or-miss.  Along with “Colours”, these are a couple of Editors best songs.  Enjoyably repetetive and singable.
12. Interpol – NYC >> Conveys a sense of space, a quality which I think is present only in Interpol’s best.
13. Aceyalone with RJD2 – A Beautiful Mine (edit) >> Also known as the theme to Mad Men, I edited this down to remove the extra noodling at the end.
14. Dan Deacon – Okie Dokie >> Aside from the plain insanity of this track I enjoy two particular things about this song.  One is the refrain of “I’ve got a rattlesnake gun” (is it a gun that is for shooting rattlesnakes?  is it a gun that shoots out rattlesnakes?  THESE ARE THE THINGS I NEED TO KNOW!).  Second is that it’s on the album Spiderman of the Rings, one of the better album names you’ll see.  Anyay, I still need to hear Deacon’s most recent album.
15. Passion Pit – Sleepy Head >> Reminds me of “Alice” by Pogo.  I absolutely adore the wipey synth that comes in around 1:13.
16. Hot Chip – One Pure Thought
17. Asobi Seksu – Transparence >> I hadn’t really noticed until now, but I didn’t really like their first album.  They didn’t figure out until Citrus (2006).
18. Third Eye Blind – Jumper >> This is still a good song; I refuse to believe otherwise.
19. Supergrass – In It For the Money >> What’s with the sudden ending?  It makes it a little hard on people making mix CDs, but it does provide good contrast with…
20. Michael Andrews – Slipping Away >> A short creepy track you’ll probably recognize as being out of the Donnie Darko soundtrack.
21. The Prodigy – Stand Up >> Big bold brass.  I like it.

Also, you owe it to yourself to watch/listen to Steve Porter’s remixes of the Slap Chop and Sham Wow commercials.

Arbitrary song of the day: Thom Yorke – The Clock

Forgotten Songs

Over on Keith Law’s The dish, he has an enjoyable post up where he describes “Forgotten songs“:

…songs I really like and never stopped liking but that, for one reason or another, were never huge hits in their times and have since been gathering dust on the music world’s shelves… [nothing] too obscure – I think everything here received radio airplay in the U.S.

This is a fun idea, similar to one I had before but was too lazy to write up at the time.  Among Klaw’s songs, the only one I remember hearing is Lo Fidelity Allstars’ “Battleflag”, which is one of those songs to me that you don’t know anything about, but you’ve heard a million times.  Included on the list is the song “Fun For Me” by Moloko, which will now almost certainly be on my next mix CD.  The video isn’t anything groundbreaking, but singer Róisín Murphy brings the over-the-top sass perfectly.  There seem to be a lot of these scruffy/dorky male producer and gorgeous female singer pop-electronic duos (Moloko, Miss Kittin and The Hacker, Lamb, and let’s say Ladytron is essentially made up of two of these).

As far as my own list…

Supergrass – Pumping on Your Stereo

I had completely forgotten about this song until a couple months ago when I happened across the video on Youtube.  I think I had searched for it before some years ago, but I don’t think a search for “music video with muppety things and its awesome” turned up many results.

Fastball – The Way

I remember this from back when I used to watch VH1 after coming home from school.  Amazingly, Fastball is still making music, with another album coming in April.  Other songs I particularly associate with this period of time are from a couple of Shawns: Shawn Colvin (“Sunny Came Home“) and Shawn Mullins (“Lullaby“).

The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds

This is very not forgotten by me, but most people would probably know it as that song that was on a VW Beetle back when those cars started to become trendy again.  The Orb has always had terrible videos that should have no interest to anyone this side of an LSD trip, but the song is one of the most catchy pieces of 90s electronic music.

Mr. Oizo – Flat Beat

“Flat Beat” apparently got to #1 in the UK, but I’d be surprised if anyone stateside remembers this track.  Really, the only reason I know it is because it was in MTV’s alternative videos playlist for a couple weeks.  The album it’s from, Analog Worms Attack, has grown on me more and more over the years.  The unfiltered, dirty, analog squelches mixed with bits of tongue-in-cheek humor are class.

New Radicals – You Get What You Give

Everyone around my age knows this song and will remember it, even though they haven’t heard it for years.  It’s not really surprising that everyone has forgotten this song considering the band only wrote one album.  Frontman Gregg Alexander kind of looks like Billy Corgan, only if Corgan was tall and dressed like a douchebag.  Not that I’m blaming Alexander, as I’m pretty sure everyone dressed like that in the late 90s.

The Breeders – Cannonball

I honestly know almost nothing about The Breeders or how I originally heard this song, but aren’t these supposed to be forgotten songs after all?

Are any of these songs not forgotten at all?  Clearly I didn’t forget about them, but maybe other people didn’t either.  Let me know!

Also of note is Paul Shirley’s most recent column for ESPN about The Prodigy’s most recent album.  He’s a good writer and has respectable musical tastes, especially for an athlete – his love of Kings of Leon not withstanding.

EDIT (3/19):

Guster – Fa Fa

“Fa Fa” could be the most forgotten song on my list, since I completely forgot about it until coming across it today on Youtube.  And I even own the CD.  By no means is this a lyrical masterpiece, but lets go ahead and add it for purposes of nostalgia even if nothing else.  When I first saw this video, I thought the guitarist in the cowboy hat looked like a jackass.  This has not changed.

Arbitrary song of the day: Underworld – Mmm… Skyscraper I Love You

25 Albums

I’m sure everyone has been tagged in one of those “25 Albums” (or 20 possibly albums) notes on Facebook that have some corny stuff about music that moved you, energized you, or wanted to make you experience life or whatever.  Anyway, my 25 are the ones that were most formative in terms of my musical preferences over the past 10 years or so.  I figured I may as well cross-post it, so here we go in alphabetical order:

Aphex Twin – Richard D. James Album
Boards of Canada – Music Has the Right to Children
Brian Eno – Ambient 4: On Land
Deeper Shades of Hooj Vol. 3 (mixed by Red Jerry)
Editors – The Back Room
Global Communication – 76:14
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
Mindless Self Indulgence – Frankenstein Girls May Seem Strangely Sexy
Moby – Play
Mr. Oizo – Analog Worms Attack
The National – Boxer
Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile
The Orb – Orbus Terrarum
Paul van Dyk – Seven Ways
Plaid – Not For Threes
The Prodigy – Music for the Jilted Generation
Rammstein – Sehnsucht
Rob Zombie – Hellbilly Deluxe
Sasha & John Digweed – Northern Exposure
The Smashing Pumpkins – The Aeroplane Flies High
The Smashing Pumpkins – Adore
Soul Coughing – Ruby Vroom
Tool – Undertow
Ulrich Schnauss – Far Away Trains Passing By

Arbitrary song of the day: Godspeed You Black Emperor! – The Dead Flag Blues

March 2009 Mix CD

1. Tokyo Police Club – Nature of the Experiment
2. The Presets – Are You the One?
3. Mindless Self Indulgence – Never Wanted to Dance
4. VHS or Beta – Can’t Believe a Single Word
5. Bloc Party – Banquet
6. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (a decidedly American song by the Australian)
7. Pavement – Stereo (I can’t listen to this song without thinking of Sloshy’s “We Don’t Really Even Care About You”)
8. The Verve Pipe – Hero
9. Beck – No Complaints
10. Mindless Self Indulgence – On It (insanely catchy and over-the-top complete with slick production)
11. Chemical Brothers – Star Guitar (edit) (a surprisingly understated track with an understated but fascinating video)
12. Friendly Fires – Paris (I especially love the lush final minute of the song; strong yet haunting)
13. Klaxons – Isle of Her (this brings to mind a ship full of Vikings chanting a rowing song)
14. The Killers – Shadowplay (I’m not a Killers fan, but I approve of Joy Division)
15. TV on the Radio – Golden Age (the version TotR performed on SNL wasn’t very good; way too “blurry” and not finely tuned at all)
16. Fujiya & Miyagi – Collarbone
17. Asobi Seksu – Thursday
18. Our Lady Peace – Is Anybody Home? (don’t try hitting the same range that frontman Raine Maida does – you will hurt yourself)
19. The Shins – Weird Divide
20. The National – Slow Show (this one has taken a while to grow on me, but I totally buy into it now)
21. VHS or Beta – Bring on the Comets
22. Holy Fuck – Lovely Allen (energetic and uplifting – we’re going out with a bang on this one)

Arbitrary song of the day: White Zombie – Blood, Milk and Sky

9 Rules for Room Escape Game Developers

Room escape games are a subgenre of the point-and-click adventure games of old.  They’re typically done in Flash and released for free on the interwebs.  The basic plot of a room escape game is that you are locked in a room for a reason that may not be clear and you must escape.  There are puzzles, keys, codes, and such that you must solve in order to accomplish this.  It’s kind of like a miniature game of Myst that takes place in a single room.

A typical scene in a room escape game (image from the game "Vision")

Anyway, so I’ve been playing a few room escape games recently.  I’ve played a few before, but I didn’t realize just how many of these games there are.  As I played through a couple good ones and a couple bad ones, some basic rules occurred to me that I think anyone who makes one of these games should follow.

1. Avoid “hunt-the-pixel“ – Games are supposed to be fun.  I do not want to infuriated by your game to the point of committing a minor homicide.  If I have to use the built-in Flash “Zoom In” option in order to click on your marble, IT IS TOO SMALL!  This seems extremely obvious to me, but somehow developers still fail to follow it.

2. Make the item interactions logical – If I have a battery in my inventory, it makes sense for me to insert it into radio in order to make the radio function.  If I have a fire poker in my inventory, it DOES NOT make sense for to use it to turn on the television.  No one wants to feel like they have to try every single item on every other object to see if something magically unexpected happens.

3. Don’t make your clues impossible – I don’t mind having to bust out a piece of paper.  In fact, I like it when I have to write down a few things; it makes me feel smart.  However, I don’t like when I have a sheet full of stuff and none of it matches up.  If even after looking at a walkthrough it doesn’t make sense to me, you might want to rethink that particular puzzle.

4. Make everything count – If I can zoom in on it, it better be useful at some point.  This is sort of like the Chekov’s gun of adventure games: “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there.”  No empty drawers, no meaningless potted plants, no extra animations.  God help you if you intentionally add in something to throw players off track.

5. Keep items simple – Don’t have a million items.  In particular, don’t make there be more items than I can carry at once.  This is just an artificial inconvenience that gets in the way of fun.  And when an item is no longer useful, get rid of it!  And once an item is properly used, don’t let me pick it up again.  I don’t want to have to try the scissors on anything that looks cuttable for the rest of the game.

6. No audio puzzles – This applies in any adventure game really.  Has anyone after completing an audio puzzle ever thought: “Wow, that wasn’t the worst experience of my life at all”?

7. Have decent graphics – This might seem a bit shallow, but if I’m going to spend an hour or so looking at what is essentially four images, I would like them to look nice.  I’m not going to bother with something that looks like it was done with the polygon tool in MS Paint.

8. No people – Part of the fun of room escape games is the feeling of isolation and solitariness.  I don’t want to see my own character or anyone else.  If it was good enough for Myst, it’s good enough for you.

9. No outside knowledge necessary (including language) – I shouldn’t need to Google for any scientific data or obscure symbology in order to solve your puzzle.  Additionally, dialogue and written words should be avoided for both atmospheric reasons as well as for cross-language compatibility (letters are ok).  The language thing is especially important since a lot of these type of games seem to be produced by Japanese developers.

Most room escape games violate a few of the above rules.  Some, however, manage to violate almost all of them, such as the inappropriately titled “Escape Pear Room 2009” which violates all but #8.  The best room escape game I’ve played is probably Neutral’s “Vision“, which violates virtually none of the rules.  All of Neutral’s room escape games are actually quite good, so play any of those after you beat “Vision”.

Also, there seems to be a disproportionate number of Christmas-themed room escape games.  Is there something about Christmas that makes people want to escape rooms?

Arbitrary song of the day: Pavement – Stereo